AboutWW2.com
WWII Pictures of the Pacific

These WWII pictures are from the personal scrapbooks of Lt.
Colonel O. Howard ("Dave") Davidsmeyer, officer in charge of communications on
General MacArthur's staff. Additional documents are from the collection of his son, O.
Howard Davidsmeyer, Jr., who as an Ensign in the US Navy was a carrier pilot who flew
Tomcats and Hellcats. These World War II pictures are from the SWPA (Southwest Pacific
Area).

These pages provide WW2 airplane and military pictures along with information
about the Army Signal Corps and Navy aviators.

Signal Corps Communications Brochures
about the Signal Corps communication ships in the Pacific - cutting-edge of WWII
communications technology allowed breaking war news to get to the home front within hours.

Army Signal Corps Radio Pictures
- pictures documenting the Battle of Rabaul in the Pacific were transmitted by radio back
to the home front  an engineering first!

WWII Machine Guns and Artillery
- Signal Corps photographs of US marines and soldiers with field artillery and machine
guns, taken on various islands in the Southwest Pacific.

Native Island Men and Children
- many pictures of the native men and children of the Pacific islands, in traditional
dress. Also picture of a native army unit. (Added Jan 28, 2003)

Flat-Hatting WWII US Navy
Aviator Training brochure. This brochure with humorous graphics discourages young aviators
from the deadly practice of "flat-hatting"  flying low needlessly,
grandstanding, or showing off, in other words, flying foolishly and carelessly. The term
itself is said to have arisen from an incident in which the wheel of a low-flying plane
struck a pedestrian on the head and crushed a new top hat he was wearing.

O Howard Davidsmeyer - about the man who created
the scrapbooks from which most of the pictures on this website came.

TP-249 Geoanna - picture and
personal narrative about serving on the Army Radio Schooner Geoanna. (Added February 8,
2003)

Many more photos in the scrapbooks ... I've just scanned one of the three photo albums
of "Dave" Davidsmeyer. Will be adding more pictures to the web site as time
progresses.